They say “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. What if life gives you snot instead?
Now, see, this is what happens when I’m too poor to buy nice distracting new toys for myself. (No, not the hand in the picture – that’s not mine, it’s just there for illustration.)
I found a pot that I’d rinsed well but then left filled with water in the sink to soak, to help remove the last of the rice bits stuck to it. It hadn’t gotten stinky or fuzzy or anything, but it had gone…viscous. Like a light sewing-machine oil. Naturally, I took appropriate action to deal with it.
I fed it.
Glucose (“dextrose”), to be precise. It’s since been dumped into an old glass jar and the original pot thoroughly scrubbed with hot soapy water. At this point (a day later) the slime is closer to the viscosity of vegetable oil now. And I fed it again.
I wonder what it is? I mean, obviously it’s bacteria-snot, but what kind? I suppose if I had some iodine I could check to see if it’s a polysaccharide (evidently this test works on polysaccharides besides starch). If only I had a microscope, I could at least get some basic hints as to what’s producing the slime. Maybe I can maintain a culture and figure it out later, if I can ever afford a real microscope. Perhaps I could even attempt a strain-improvement program to increase the production rate…
Uh…I did mention I was a nerd, right? Okay then.
I wonder if anyone at work has a bacteriological microscope setup that I could use?…